I know we had a thread about this a long time ago; hell, I might have started it. I’m talking about pronouncing the words the way the singer does as opposed to how you normally would. A good example, which was mentioned last times is the Oasis song. You know the one . . . Champagne Supernover. There’s also Goodbye Yellow Brick Road where Sir Elton reckons it’ll take him a couple of vodker and tonics to get him on his feet again. What got me to thinking about it is the thread where we’re confessing the embarrassing current songs we like and I admitted to being crazy about Shawn Mendes’s Stitches. There is no way I can hear that song without singing along and if I’m alone I’ve got to sing it like he does:
"Just like a moth drawn to a flame
" You lured me in I *coydn’t *stand the pain
"Your bitter heart cold to the “toych”
WTF? Wiki says he’s Canadian so maybe that’s where it comes from.
Not a new song, but Hall & Oates’ Maneater contains the line “so many have paid to see what you think you’re getting for free” only it sounds like “so many have perd to see . . .” and I must sing it as such. They’re form Detroit so I guess that’s what that one’s about (?)
Do you guys do the same thing? Do you put a full on Scottish brogue when you belt out the Proclaimers I’m Gonna Be?
I tend to mimic the singer(s) in a song – regardless of whether I’m pretending to be the lead or a back-up vocal – and I’m not sure if it’s ever really been a conscious effort. Certainly I do it for CCR’s version of Proud Mary [Big wheel keep on toinin’…] and various Eagles’ tunes and even for Sir John’s Yellow Brick Road.
One of my colleagues and I were discussing the fact that we’re exceedingly good at mimicking accents and will often do so unconsciously. We related it to the fact that we’re trained singers (I was in choir; he’s an opera tenor in his spare time) and a lot of accents (not dialects) are about shifting one’s vowels – reading them one way and pronouncing them another way. Since singing is very much about extending the duration of one’s vowels, twisting or shifting those vowels isn’t much more difficult and doing so to emulate a recorded artist’s phrasing and enunciation occurs (for me, at least) as naturally as following the performer’s pitch.
I might do the same thing, it depends on the song. For example, I’ll sing Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind” in a Lawn Guyland accent or a Springsteen song in a Joisey accent.
If I’m quite familiar with both the singer’s vocal style and their regional accent, I’ll tend to pronounce as they do when singing along.
I recall distinctly that I started doing this around 1991, when for some reason I found it more comfortable to sing along to R.E.M. by pronouncing vowels and consonants in Michael Stipe’s unique manner: the piercing “eee,” the partly lisped “s” with the tongue placed just so…
I hit Billie Joe Armstrong’s mock-Cockney super hard when I sing along. If you are going to fake an accent, go big.
Oasis’ opening track on Definitely Maybe, Rock n’ Roll Star, has Liam snarling the word “sunshine” with this hilarious accent: I need time in the sun-she-iiiiinnnneeee. Always fun to drag out.
Anything by Ian Dury and the Blockheads - Hit me with your Rhythm Stick, Sex and Drugs and Rock n’ Roll - how could you not?
With Johnny Rotten, I try to roll my R’s at the right spots
:smack: Thank you (where the hell did I get Detroit from?)
I must say I don’t notice Billy or Bruce’s accent in their songs. Or maybe I’m so used to it that I don’t realize I’m hearing it.
[QUOTE=WordMan]
Depends on how it is being used, but usually.
I hit Billie Joe Armstrong’s mock-Cockney super hard when I sing along. If you are going to fake an accent, go big.
Oasis’ opening track on Definitely Maybe, Rock n’ Roll Star, has Liam snarling the word “sunshine” with this hilarious accent: I need time in the sun-she-iiiiinnnneeee. Always fun to drag out.
Anything by Ian Dury and the Blockheads - Hit me with your Rhythm Stick, Sex and Drugs and Rock n’ Roll - how could you not?
With Johnny Rotten, I try to roll my R’s at the right spots
[/QUOTE]
I’m on board with all of this (I am an antichrrrrrrist!) except I did not know Billie Joe is supposed to be putting on a Cockney accent(?) It sounds like California stoner / surfer to me. Very distinctive either way
Google “Billie Joe Armstrong Cockney Accent” and you will get a sense for how much it has been discussed and used to further slam Green Day for being sellouts. He sports a Mockney accent on much of Dookie.
One of my favorite bands is Belle & Sebastian and they are so Scottish it hurts. Ok not all of their songs have an accent but the ones that do, I play along.
Courtney Barnett makes no bones about her Austrialian accent. You can’t avoid it when singing along with her. “…I’ll only disappoint yeeeew”
Another one of my faves, The Dead Milkmen, have heavy Philadelphia accents but it doesn’t come out in too many of their songs.
One can’t help imitating Tim Armstrong’s mushmouth when singing to Rancid. And whatever the Third Eye Blind guy is doing in “Semi Charmed Life”.
Yes, I do, even though I’m ridiculously bad at it. How else would you sing along with Marlene Dietrich (Fallink in luff agahn, nevuh vanted toooo) or Ian Dury?
Me too. It’s actually hard to stay with my own accent when covering some songs. The further you get from the feel of the original song, the easier it is for me to not ape the original singer.
Well to be fair, he was just following in the footsteps of Joey Ramone’s weird Noo York version of a cockney accent. (Bizarrely enough, Joey once admitted it was because he was a big fan of Herman’s Hermits!)
Back to the OP, only if it’s a really obvious accent like British working class accents or old-timey country.
